joining me now is steve and karen. karen, the expectation game has gotten really out of hand this time. finally chris christie, for whatever reason, just kind of gave up and stated the obvious and said well, of course. you know, mitt romney has to be the big winner on this first debate. >> well, i think he was like look, let me keep my credibility in check because he's been watching what has happened to congressman ryan over the course of this campaign. but i think each man has a different thing they need to accomplish. i think for governor romney he needs to have a strong performan performance. it's not just about one performance for him. his problem is a lack of consistency. he's got to have a good wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday. every day to the election. if you see him give one good performance and the next day they're off message, it's more of what we've seen the bumbling along throughout the campaign. and i think for president obama the challenge is, as my former boss howard dean said, don't get irritable.